Britney Spears Files a Civil Rights Lawsuit

Attorney Jon Eardley, who purports to represent Britney Spears, has filed documents in an L.A. U.S. District Court to move Britney’s conservatorship case from the Los Angeles County Superior Court to federal court. Eardley maintains offices in Washington, D.C., Jericho, New York, and Whittier, Calif.

Eardley claims in court papers that, without due process, Spears “is being confined by the conservator to the private prison of her own home,” and he contends that this is a violation of her civil rights.

After Britney twice spent time in a psychiatric ward, Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz placed her in a temporary conservatorship under her father Jamie and his attorney, Andrew Wallet. The order will continue until a scheduled hearing on March 10.

“I see the case as a civil rights case,” Eardley told People magazine. “These are issues of confinement. Very serious confinement. Not allowed to contact her friends. Not allowed to use the phone. Not allowed to come and go as you please. Bodyguards controlling you and so forth.”

Under the terms of the conservatorship, Spears lacks the capacity to hire her own lawyer without the approval of her conservators.

Spears’ civil rights case is unlikely to be heard by the federal court.

When an individual is determined by a court to be unable to handle his or her own affairs, a conservatorship is established. By definition, anyone who is placed in a conservatorship could claim that his or her civil rights have been violated.

This area of the law, though, is handled exclusively by state courts, and therefore a federal judge would be extremely reluctant to get involved.

Interestingly, a copy of Eardley’s filing was delivered to the L.A. Superior Court by Spears’ former manager Sam Lufti’s publicist, Michael Sands.